Something I came across at Hacker News:

http://www.themostdangerouswritingapp.com/

"If you stop typing for more than five seconds, all progress will be lost."

Here is the associated discussion on HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11197190

Someone also linked to Write or Die 2, which seems to be a similar idea:

http://writeordie.com/

There's also the similar "Flowstate" app for Mac and iOS:

www.hailoverman.com/flowstate

Oh. It eats *everything* if the screen goes red.

Anyway, the whole thing seems a bit silly though I see how it's kind of amusing. Just not practical. It's not difficult to say, set the stopwatch app on my phone for 5 minutes and just write. That was actually a required exercise in several writing courses I've been through.

My thoughts might also be coloured by time spent working at daily newspapers where the situation was crank out 400 words in the next 15 minutes or you're fired. This just doesn't feel all that intense in comparison.

It's a little fun, but I really don't see any practical use.

Manfred Kuehn happened to recently discuss an offsetting opinion (slowing down your writing) at Taking Note

http://takingnotenow.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/what-about-second-drafts.html

Interesting. The book cited in the comment to Manfred's post - "The Psychology of Writing" by Ronald Kellogg - also looks as if it may be worth reading (in Kindle form!), although possibly overtaken by more recent research. My experience of writing scripts to deadlines suggests to me that a fast first draft followed by one or more subsequent drafts at a more considered pace is optimal, especially for a larger readership or audience for whom clarity is essential and when complicated ideas are involved.

shatteredmindofbob wrote:

the whole thing seems a bit silly though I see how it's kind of
amusing. Just not practical. It's not difficult to say, set the
stopwatch app on my phone for 5 minutes and just write.

It depends on the nature of the writing task. If you're dealing with a serious case of writer's block where you're paralysed by fear because the output will be judged by your peers or superiors (let's say fellow scientists or your line manager), then setting the stopwatch may not be sufficient.

I see the value of these types of apps in that they force one to get into the flow of writing, and it is the act and process of writing that engenders more and better writing. So if all it does is helps you get started, then it's already valuable. Then at least one has a first draft to revise (as opposed to wanting to write the perfect copy in the first instance).

P.S. it's basically a psychological trick that these apps help to perform. I observed it with the Freedom software that cuts off Internet access. As soon as I launched it, I could suddenly breath (literally), relax, and focus on the writing. So what Freedom did for me was it removed to possibility of avoidance and procrastination that the availability of internet enabled. Which reminds me, I should turn it back on! ;-)